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Disgraced Essex peer Lord Hanningfield, who was jailed for a House of Lords expenses fiddle, must wait to hear the outcome of his High Court claim for more than £6,000 damages from police who he accuses of unlawful arrest and detention.

After a day and a half of legal argument at London’s High Court one of the country’s top judges, Mr Justice David Eady has reserved judgment in the case and will give it in writing later. He said he will do it as soon as possible but no date has been fixed.

The 72-year-old peer claims his arrest over the alleged fraudulent use of the corporate credit card while leader of Essex County Council was unlawful and unnecessary.

Dring the hearintg he told the judge he almost had a breakdown following his arrest and detention in September 2011.

At the time he had been out of prison for just a few days after serving nine weeks of a nine month sentence imposed at Chelmsford Crown Court in the July after he was found guilty of six counts of false accounting and ordered to pay back more than £30,000.

Former Tory peer Lord Hanningfield, who has brought a damages action against the police, told the High Court today how he was overwhelmed by the "tsunami" of the expenses scandal.

The 72 year old is suing Essex Police for up to £6,500 compensation over events in September 2011 - days after his release from prison after serving nine weeks of a nine month sentence for false accounting in relation to his parliamentary expenses.

The police, who deny that his arrest, detention and search of his home near Chelmsford were unlawful, were conducting an investigation into expenses from when the peer was leader of Essex County Council.

It was later discontinued without any charges being brought.

Lord Hanningfield told Mr Justice Eady in London that he accepted he made mistakes over his parliamentary expenses but did not ever think he was doing anything wrong.

"But I was convicted by a jury and that's how life is. It is water under the bridge."

Former Luton Labour MP Margaret Moran fiddled her expenses claims to receive more than £53,000, a jury has ruled.

Moran, 57, who served as MP for Luton South from 1997 until the 2010 General Election, claimed nearly her entire annual allowance in one bogus expense entry and forged invoices for more than £20,000 of non-existent goods and services.

Jurors at Southwark Crown Court in London were unable to return a guilty verdict after it was ruled that Moran was unfit to stand trial for mental health reasons.

Instead, in a trial of issue, the jury found that she had committed 15 counts of false accounting and six counts of using a false instrument over the claims for parliamentary expenses.